Day: December 1, 2011

Just got an SOS e-mail from Connie Brooks at Battenkill Books, my local bookstore. She told me she  has a ton of orders and wants to keep them moving so that everyone gets their books well before Christmas. I am on the way to sign more – fourth time this week – and we are rushing towards 1,000 sold and beyond. This is nothing but fun, and we are determined to take orders up the last minute, get them signed and personalized and to people before Christmas – this is a promise for orders placed in the next few weeks.  Connie is offering free “Going Home” videos and signed Bedlam Farm notecards with each book purchased, “Going Home,” or any of my other books.

Seems we have sparked a mini-revolution here with people voting for me (thank you), for bookstores, for individuality, creativity and independence. I think a new movement was born on Plaid Friday as people are realizing that community businesses are in danger of being swallowed up whole by online and corporate conglomerates. Wal-Mart has its place, but I do not want to live in a Wal-Mart only or Amazon only world. You can join the fight for bookstores and individual freedom,  for buying local and for curbing corporate power and growth by calling Connie at 518 677 2515 or e-mailing her at www. battenkillbooks.com. She has PayPal.

I take very seriously the responsibility of writers to enter the marketplace and promote their own works, but this is something beyond me and my work, and that is very gratifying. Can’t way it bothers me any to be selling all these books either. And it is a special pleasure to watch Connie run with this and make her great independent bookstore work against many substantial odds. We both expect to be around a long time, thanks to so many of you. I’ll be at the store Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. to help take orders and talk to anybody who wants to say hello. And thank you personally. 518 677 2515.

Next acts are important, a prescription for me that is much more effective than most medications.  Next acts propel us forward, away from fear, confusion and the discouraging signals I sometimes get from the world around us. I will not live a life that rides up and down on the market, or Italy, Greece, Spain or the decisions of frustrated and angry people in Washington. And I’m not drawn to Occupy Wall Street either. They are welcome to it.

Coming to the cabin where I wrote “Running To The Mountain” was a Next Act. Buying Bedlam Farm was a Next Act. So was getting Izzy. Rose. Lenore. Frieda. So was Maria coming into my life. So was Simon. And returning to fiction. And “Dancing Dogs,” my short story collection coming out next October. So, for that matter, was this blog. And the new design. And the amazingly successful co-campaign with my local bookstore to sell 1,000 copies of “Going Home.” My whole life is a series of Next Acts,and some of them work, and some of them don’t. I feel like I’m on a tear though.

Next Acts force us to redefine ourselves. Challenge or own sense of limits. Defy the limited expectations of others. Push away fear and anger, and most importantly, replenish the loss of hope that can afflict people living in a world gone mad with fear, warnings, conflict and greed.  In our culture, young people are told they have no future, older people no purpose. This kills the spirit. Next Acts renew it.  This morning I asked myself, “what is my Next Act?” It will be a creative one, I think. For me, life with no Next Act is a kind of loss, a kind of death of the spirit. I can’t wait to feel it. I can’t wait to share it. I can’t wait to do it.